Kukla's Korner Hockey

Matt Cooke is spending part of his days as a suspended NHL player in front of a video screen, with Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma or one of his assistants, Tony Granato or Todd Reirden.

There, Cooke sits and watches the dirty hits that brought the outrage of the hockey world down on him last month.

The idea, Penguins general manager Ray Shero said, is to bring back a changed man when Cooke returns from his latest suspension that covered the final 10 games of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs. Pittsburgh leads the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first-round series three games to one, with a chance to close it out Saturday (CBC, noon ET). If the Pens advance, he could be back in action as early as next week.

“The coaches say [to Cooke] you have to be careful with this, be more conscious of this,” Shero said. “I think he wants to change the way things happen for him.”